Greg Page fought a great crop of fighters; no doubt........... But after the smoke clears and you look at his resume, it indicates that he was merely good for a short time...... Page has roughly 17 losses on his record........ Page's prime days were 1981 thru 1984..... Cheers.....

MR.BILL

P.S.

I forgot to add that Page earned his Dec. 1984 title shot against Gerrie Coetzee by losing to Tim Witherspoon and David Bey in early to mid 1984 on HBO..... Jesus Christ....

Greg Page fought a great crop of fighters; no doubt........... But after the smoke clears and you look at his resume, it indicates that he was merely good for a short time...... Page has roughly 17 losses on his record........ Page's prime days were 1981 thru 1984..... Cheers.....

MR.BILL

Below is your actual statement tho

Quote:

Greg Page and Tony Tucker were over-hyped and have been overrated... Neither guy ever did anything really thrilling or impressive....

Which was wrong. Nobody was talking consistency of longevity. Page had moments of brilliance.

Quote:

I forgot to add that Page earned his Dec. 1984 title shot against Gerrie Coetzee by losing to Tim Witherspoon and David Bey in early to mid 1984 on HBO..... Jesus Christ....

Well, while I know or knew Gerrie Coetzee could punch with his right hand, I never had faith in him as a solid fighter...... Coetzee's biggest wins were over Leon Stinks, Stan Ward & Michael Dokes........ Whoooppee.... Also, he got that draw with Pinky Thomas.... But them losses to Tate, Weaver, Page, Bruno, and much later---Iran Barkley were pretty damaging to Coetzee's legacy.... Gerrie Coetzee's flaw was, he relied too much on his right hand to pull him through.... Plus, his stamina was poor.......

And, I liked Bonecrusher Smith eversince he KO'd Frank Bruno on national TV back around 1983 or '84.... I also thought Smith gave Larry Holmes a damn good tussle in 1984 on HBO..... In 1985, Smith lost a 10 rounder to Spoon on the undercard of "Weaver-Thomas." I think Smith also floored but lost a 10 rounder to Marvis Frazier in 1985, as well....... However, 1986 was a GREAT REBOUND for Bonecrusher Smith.... Smith scored wins over Mike Weaver, Jesse Ferguson, David Bey & Tim Witherspoon to close out the year...... Then came 1987, and Smith lost to Mike Tyson and Adilson Rodrigues.... I still followed James Smith's career into the 1990s, but by 1988, Smith had become a "Hot & Cold" fighter just collecting extra money by staying active.....

I think the sub-Tyson/Holmes fighters of the 80's were less spectacular than today's lot (and I am not including Valuev who is a complete shamjob) but at least they fought each other, which more than makes up their other lackings.

I was never sold on Tyrell Biggs............ I always sensed something was missing from Biggs....... I never cared for David Bey, either..... I liked Renaldo Snipes early on, but then I saw the light and realized he sucked, but was tuff..... I thought Carl Williams was gonna be great in the late 80s, however, in 1986, Mike Weaver exposed Williams' glass-jaw..... Nuff said there........ I always liked Mike Weaver, but he was always 50/50 as if he'd win..... Too risky to bet on......

I think the sub-Tyson/Holmes fighters of the 80's were less spectacular than today's lot (and I am not including Valuev who is a complete shamjob) but at least they fought each other, which more than makes up their other lackings.

Seamus,

The reason why the 80s "Slob" heavies fought each other during that decade was due to the fact that Don King had 90% of them sum *****es under contract, and King had set-up that heavyweight series with HBO in the mid-80s..... King was at his strongest in the 80s..... King's fingers began to slip from the strings in 1990 when Buster Douglas KO'd Mike Tyson in Tokyo...... King had Buster Douglas, but Douglas paid King 6 million dollars to break away from Don "The" King..... Then Evander Holyfield KO'd Douglas in Vegas in late 1990, and that further weakened King's grip on the division..... Cheers....

That whole 80's heavyweight scene was pretty corrupt and shady without so much as an ounce of clearity. Gerrie Coetzee was given god knows how many shots at the WBA title. Dokes was a protected item from the begining who I think received a few gifts. And who the hell did Tucker ever beat to gain the power of a mandatory, putting pressure on a lineal champion to defend a title? Thomas, Tubbs, Spoon, Page, Smith,etc were all part of the picture as well, and the WItherspoon - Boncrusher fight stunk about as bad as anything could....

I did not have a problem or a gripe back in 1991 & 1992 when Holyfield defended his lineal title against the likes of "Foreman, Cooper & Holmes." Despite age or lack of credibility at the time, I think those title bouts were just and worthy all the way.... However, after Holyfield lost his title to Rid**** Bowe in '92, Bowe and manager Rock Newman committed a series of crimes by tossing the WBC title belt into the trash in public and defending the WBA / IBF titles against a shot Michael Dokes and a ringworn Jesse Ferguson in 1993....

MR.BILL

NOTE:

Razor Ruddock was the most over-hyped and overrated heavyweight of the 1990s.....

Note: The Bert Cooper defense was a result of a last minute substitute due to the reprocussions of the Tyson trial. Cooper was never marketed as a legit contender, though I felt he made a fine fill in. I agree that Foreman was a solid contender and one who earned his title shot. I'm not sure that I liked Holmes getting a shot, even though he did beat a fine contender in Mercer.

While Larry Holmes is / was more skilled than George Foreman ever was, his 1992 title fight with Evander Holyfield was NOT as thrilling as the 1991 "Holy-Foreman" title bout on PPV / TVKO..... Still, based off that impressive win over 30 year old Raymond Mercer earlier in 1992, Larry Holmes' title shot was legit and warranted, in my book....

To this day, I am still ****ed off that the 1999 "Holmes-Foreman" fight fell apart in Houston, Texas...... The promotion and backers were lousy, and the money that was to be promised to both Holmes and Foreman was just not there..... Thus we ended up with a cancellation...... GODDAMMIT!!

[quote=MRBILL;3266771]Tim Witherspoon was as bored as hell while in the ring fighting Pinklon Thomas in the summer of '84......... I have this fight on tape; its boring.... Yes, Thomas wins, but this was NOT a classic heavyweight encounter of the 80s......

As for the Mike Weaver fight of '85, Thomas looked sloppy and tired after 4 rds.... Plus, he got cut and rocked by Weaver throughout.... I do like this fight and KO win for Thomas, but Pinklon Thomas did NOT look like a great champion to me in 1985.....

The came Trevor Berbick in 1986....... Christ, Thomas stunk and blew his title..... That was the beginning of the end for Thomas..... Jesus, Ol' Pinklon Thomas was a whopping 28 yrs old and fading fast.......

Tim Witherspoon was as bored as hell while in the ring fighting Pinklon Thomas in the summer of '84......... I have this fight on tape; its boring.... Yes, Thomas wins, but this was NOT a classic heavyweight encounter of the 80s......

As for the Mike Weaver fight of '85, Thomas looked sloppy and tired after 4 rds.... Plus, he got cut and rocked by Weaver throughout.... I do like this fight and KO win for Thomas, but Pinklon Thomas did NOT look like a great champion to me in 1985.....

The came Trevor Berbick in 1986....... Christ, Thomas stunk and blew his title..... That was the beginning of the end for Thomas..... Jesus, Ol' Pinklon Thomas was a whopping 28 yrs old and fading fast.......

is your copy of witherspoon/yhomas first gen???

YES! I have the actual HBO recording (Thomas-Spoon) from my old Sharp recorder from my high school days / daze......... Barry Tompkins, Larry Merchant and Raymond Leonard call the action.......... I used a Kodak video tape......... I got it laying around somewhere......

The best thing about that whole mid 80's era was how quickly Tyson cleaned that mess up. It only took about a year and a half and prior to that it was a time of matches not made and less than scintillating results when they were. What a refreshing change to finally have a new sheriff in town.